According to the report, California’s hunger rate is higher than the national rate of 14.3 percent of households, representing 49 million adults and children who struggled against hunger in 2013. This high and persistent level of hunger underscores the immense need to strengthen the food safety net by increasing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, known as CalFresh in California, and expanding child nutrition programs.

“With one in 7 (6.6) California households struggling against hunger, it is clear that the most vulnerable among us – seniors, people with disabilities, working and unemployed families, and children, depend on federal nutrition programs to keep food on the table,” said Jessica Bartholow, legislative advocate at the Western Center on Law and Poverty. “While there has been a slight decline in food insecurity since the beginning of Governor Jerry Brown’s administration, Californians are still much more food insecure than they were in 2001 and millions of people continue to struggle to prevent the indignity of hunger.”

“The drop in food insecurity in California since 2010 represents investments and efficiencies made by the Legislature and the Brown administration,” said Andrew Cheyne, director of policy at the California Association of Food Banks. “We are hoping that the Administration continues this commitment to driving down these numbers by signing anti-hunger legislation now on his desk, Assembly Bill 1930 (Skinner) and Senate Bill 1002 (De León),” he added.

Released by California Association of Food Banks, Western Center on Law and Poverty, and Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations. For more information about hunger in America, visit www.frac.org.

About the USDA Report:
Since 1995, the United States Department of Agriculture, using data from surveys conducted annually by the Census Bureau, has released national and state estimates of the number of people in households that are food insecure. Food insecure households are those that are not able to afford an adequate diet at all times in the past 12 months. For states, USDA uses three-year averages to give a better estimate (with a smaller margin of error) of the number of households experiencing food insecurity. Experts agree that the Census/USDA measure of food insecurity is a conservative one, with the result that only households experiencing substantial food insecurity are so classified.